China Trip Part I (Xi'an, Xining)
Sep. 1st, 2024 10:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tcpipLast Tuesday I boarded the big silver bird for a fortnight in China. The adventure started with a touchdown in Guangzhou then a transfer flight to Xi'an, capital of the Shaanxi province and historical start-point of the Silk Road. Travelling with three others (Jan, Barbara, and Lois) we stayed at the rather pleasant Bell Tower Hotel which, as the name implies, was across the road from the Ming Dynasty Bell Tower, a mere 650 years old. The eponymous bell itself is about twice that age, originating in the Tang dynasty. Just down the road from this is its sister building, the Drum Tower, also from the same period and perhaps not surprisingly includes many drums ("morning bell and evening drum" is the traditional saying), including the newer Wentian drum which is the largest drum in the world. The Tower's visit also included an excellent Tang-dynasty themed musical performance. Both locations contain many artifacts and museum pieces and are accompanied by superb architecture, "architecture is the magnificent music of civilization" concluded one piece.
The next leg of the journey involved a train trip to Xining, the capital of the Qinghai province. It was, to say the least, bloody hot even by Australian standards; western China is in the middle of an awful heatwave which is a predictable result of continuing global warming pressures. Xining struck me as a little less wealthy than other Chinese cities I have been to, but also more religious; I leave it to sociologists to work out why this correlation is so common across cultures. This said it's a very mixed place with Chinese, Tibetan, and Mongolian populations, and Buddhist, Daoist, and Islamic places of worship are all prevalent. Our journeys included a visit to the large Kumbum Buddhist Monastery with its numerous temples (including the amusing Yak butter sculpture exhibition), the Daoist-Buddhist Tulou Temple of Beishan, which provided superb views of the city, and finally the Dongguan Mosque. Kumbum is one of the most important monasteries in China, and where the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism was founded and, as a result, is the most impressive and affords the most visitors, although once refurbishments are complete the Tulou Temple will certainly attract more attention.
From Xining our group departed on a long train trip to Lhasa, taking over twenty hours. Much of the landscape in the initial hours was desert with some sandstone mountains. Various sources of power generation is evident here, including some enormous wind farms. Despite the good company that I was travelling with, it was a bit gruelling although local children were absolutely fascinated by our group and took the opportunity to practise some English to which I tried responding with my much worse Chinese. As dawn broke it was evident that we had entered Tibet, with nearby mountains, green fields, and herds of yaks. Whilst somewhat orthogonal to this journal entry, I also received a letter of acceptance for my PhD application at EUCLID; more about that at another time.
The next leg of the journey involved a train trip to Xining, the capital of the Qinghai province. It was, to say the least, bloody hot even by Australian standards; western China is in the middle of an awful heatwave which is a predictable result of continuing global warming pressures. Xining struck me as a little less wealthy than other Chinese cities I have been to, but also more religious; I leave it to sociologists to work out why this correlation is so common across cultures. This said it's a very mixed place with Chinese, Tibetan, and Mongolian populations, and Buddhist, Daoist, and Islamic places of worship are all prevalent. Our journeys included a visit to the large Kumbum Buddhist Monastery with its numerous temples (including the amusing Yak butter sculpture exhibition), the Daoist-Buddhist Tulou Temple of Beishan, which provided superb views of the city, and finally the Dongguan Mosque. Kumbum is one of the most important monasteries in China, and where the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism was founded and, as a result, is the most impressive and affords the most visitors, although once refurbishments are complete the Tulou Temple will certainly attract more attention.
From Xining our group departed on a long train trip to Lhasa, taking over twenty hours. Much of the landscape in the initial hours was desert with some sandstone mountains. Various sources of power generation is evident here, including some enormous wind farms. Despite the good company that I was travelling with, it was a bit gruelling although local children were absolutely fascinated by our group and took the opportunity to practise some English to which I tried responding with my much worse Chinese. As dawn broke it was evident that we had entered Tibet, with nearby mountains, green fields, and herds of yaks. Whilst somewhat orthogonal to this journal entry, I also received a letter of acceptance for my PhD application at EUCLID; more about that at another time.
